An analysis procedure for the MCFC channel flow has been developed to predict the fuel cell performance. The channel formed by the uniformly distributed trapezoidal supports is approximated by the porous medium that yields the equivalent pressure drop. As for the electrochemical reaction, among several chemical reaction models, one that fits the data best is adopted after a comprehensive comparative study. The Navier-Stokes, energy, and species equations are solved to obtain the velocity temperature and concentration fields for a specified average current density. The procedure is iterative as the local current density, or the reaction rate, is allowed vary with the gas composition and the solution is seen to converge within 5 iterations. A series of calculations are then carried out to examine the effects of gas flow rate, gas composition, gas usage rate, inlet gas temperature, and average current density on the fuel cell performance. The fuel cell characteristics, such as the temperature, voltage, current density distributions, and the cell efficiency, for various operating conditions are presented and discussed in the thesis.
